Just a bizarre day in one of the usually weird weeks in the year. The transition between the last and the first is also an awkward one, usually.
It seems it would be better to just let this last week of December be a holiday; life largely stops anyway around christmas and around new year anyway.Then in these two weeks people are awkwardly starting for a few days, stopping, then starting again, etc. Why not let the whole week of the 24th thru the 31st be a holiday and then start in full swing on the 1st , or maybe the 2nd? Or, even better, do like the Romans used to do , and I think Iranians/Zoroastrians still do, and start the year around March, at the beginning of Spring, when flowers start blooming and life reemerges from the freeze of Winter. I vote in favor.